RHA adopts non-discrimination policies
The policies include gender identity, age and disability status.
Published April 13, 2009
The Residence Halls Association added three non-discrimination policies to its constitution Monday night: gender identity, age and disability status. The legislation by member Doug Cowing, President Robert Wood and parliamentarian Michael Crawford passed internal and congress Monday night.
The new clause will read as follows: "The Residence Halls Association is a body that does not discriminate on the basis of culture, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, veteran status, gender identity, age, disability status or sexual orientation."
Internal Committee Chairman Ryan Manning said the addition of the non-discrimination clauses will help residents feel more at home in the residence halls.
"I don't think there's been instances of age, disability status or gender identity discrimination in RHA, but I think this will continue us on the right track to becoming a more legitimate organization," Manning said.
RHA Vice President Nate Ballance said there hasn't been a problem with discrimination, and there are more pertinent things RHA could be putting attention toward.
"We're very accommodating to everyone," Ballance said.
Manning said MU shouldn't be able stop anyone from achieving their goals based on things they can't change about themselves.
Triangle Coalition President Asher Kolieboi said it's important for people to be protected. Kolieboi also said the push from the Triangle Coalition to include gender identity wasn't sparked by any one incident, but there have been various incidents in the past.
"I think it's just time that people were protected, and the university and students start passing the policy to protect people," Kolieboi said.
Triangle Coalition Vice President Erin Horth said 266 schools have already passed gender inclusion policies.
"We're behind," Horth said.
Horth explained they started with MSA to pass a resolution to send a message to the administration. Now they're going to the other student governments for support.
Ballance said IncludeME speaking to RHA did speed the process of RHA authoring non-discrimination bills.
Crawford said he sponsored the bills written by Wood and Cowing because he doesn't believe discrimination for any reason is justifiable.
"I have friends of different gender identities that I would never want to see fail a class or lose their job because of gender discrimination," Crawford said.
He said he became involved in the Triangle Coalition resolution after Kolieboi expressed interest in passing the bill in the student governments.
Cowing said he and Wood wanted to update the constitution after finding some problems while participating in Crawford's constitutional review committee.
"We thought it would be good to include non-discrimination clauses in the constitution," Cowing said.
Vice President-elect Lauren Thomas said she's never noticed any problems with discrimination on the added clauses, but she also said she's never looked for problems.
"I don't think people should be discriminated against on those grounds, especially based on school and work," Thomas said.
Wood said it's better to change the constitution now rather than after there is a problem.
"I think it's a proactive approach to take," Wood said.
Crawford said there are a couple more items that need updated, but it's mainly general housekeeping.
Wood said the housekeeping bill would likely be passed as one large piece of legislation, but there are other pending items some members want to add.